No appetite for annexation
♦ Also, tax allocation district plans are paused for North Broad, Martha Berry.
None of the three Rome Redevelopment Committee members expressed interest in revisiting the subject of annexing unincorporated islands of land into the city this year.
City Commissioner Jim Bojo, who chairs the committee, said that some commissioners had asked about annexation. He questioned the committee this week on whether or not they wanted to start identifying potential properties to annex or just leave the issue alone.
In late 2020 and early 2021, an effort to annex the Celanese/riverside area met with vocal opposition from many of the residents and officials with the Floyd County Board of Education, who feared a loss of state funding if they lost students in the area.
Commissioner Jamie Doss, who also serves on the redevelopment committee, remembered those sometimes heated discussions.
“If we’re going to force annexation, that will make people unhappy,” he said. “That’s some of the reason why some people don’t trust any level of government.”
Commissioner Bonny Askew, the third member, agreed with Doss.
“Honestly, I don’t like the idea of forcing,” Askew said.
The committee did agree that the best course would be to educate people about the services offered by the city and other advantages of annexation.
“Maybe this is our fault, but I’m not sure that people truly understand the benefits of annexing into the city,” Bojo said. “Depending on who you talk to, there could be both pros and cons. You can go to Garden Lakes, and it’s kind of split 50-50 on the same street. I have a friend who
lives in Garden Lakes who would love to annex, but if he does, he’s going to create an island. So, by law, he cannot annex. He’s older like I am, and his whole reason for wanting to annex is garbage pickup service.”
“I went out there once and tried to pitch the idea,” Doss said, talking about a previous effort to annex the Celanese/riverside community. “We walked in and ran out.”
After more discussion, the committee agreed to take no further action.
NEW TAD DISTRICTS PAUSED
The redevelopment committee also heard that plans for two new redevelopment areas proposed for the Martha Berry corridor and the North Broad
Street corridor will be delayed.
According to City Manager Sammy
Rich, the discussion has been to go on a parcel-by-parcel basis for tax allocation district funding, so that if someone wants to submit a project, it has to stand on its own merits.
The process involves taking a look at what the property is worth and how much the proposed redevelopment will increase the value. In a TAD, the increased property taxes generated by new development can be used to finance costs related to development.
After speaking with their KB Group consultant on Tuesday, commissioners decided to hold off on making a recommendation for the blanket TADS.
“Based on that conversation, we probably need to tweak these drafts to make sure it’s absolutely clear what our intention is,” Rich told the committee. “We were hoping to not have to do that and that we could just keep moving forward with what we’ve got.”
Rich anticipates the issue to be resolved by the time the plans are presented to the Rome City Commission in April or May.